Possible predictors of relationship violence

<body leftmargin="0" bgcolor="#000060" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFF00" vlink="#FF9900"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%" height="1"> <tr> <center> <td valign="top" width="33%" height="33"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Arial" size="5">Danger signs of relationship violence</font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font size="1" face="Arial">Oct. 29</font><font face="Arial"><font size="1">, 2005<br> Courtesy Blackwell Publishing Ltd.<br> and World Science staff<br> </font> <br> </font> <b><font face="Arial" size="2">Men act in certain ways to retain their partner and to continue their relationship with her. Sometime it’s sweet, like holding hands or giving flowers. Other times it’s a harbinger of danger. </font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b><font face="Arial" size="2"> A study published in the latest issue of the research journal <i> Personal Relationships</i> identifies several specific acts and tactics that researchers say lead to the possibility of violence. </font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b><font face="Arial" size="2"> Vigilance over a partner’s whereabouts was the highest-ranking tactic predicting violence across the researchers’ investigation, which included three studies in one.</font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b><font face="Arial" size="2"> Emotional manipulation, such as a man saying he would “die” if his partner ever left also was predictive of violence, the authors said.</font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b><font face="Arial" size="2"> Monopolization of time and the threat to punish for infidelity also were signals of violence. Showing love and care was among the tactics not associated with violence. </font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b><font face="Arial" size="2">Evolutionarily, “Mate retention behaviors are designed to solve several adaptive problems, such as deterring a partner’s infidelity and preventing defection from the mating relationship,” said Todd K. Shackelford, author of the study and a psychologist at Florida Atlantic University in Davie, Fla.</font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b><font face="Arial" size="2"> In the first two studies, the researchers asked independent samples of men and women to report on men’s retention behaviors and men’s violence against their partners. </font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b><font face="Arial" size="2"> In the third study, they asked husbands and their wives to report on men’s retention behaviors and violence against wives. </font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b><font face="Arial" size="2"> The highest-ranking correlations between single acts and violence were not consistent across the three studies. But acts such as “dropped by unexpectedly to see what my partner was doing” and “called to make sure my partner was where she said she would be” were the overall third and fifth highest predictors of violence, the researchers found.</font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b><font face="Arial" size="2"> These acts fall under the category of “vigilance,” which the couples reported as the highest–ranking tactic leading to violence and the only tactic across all three studies that uniquely predicts violence. </font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b><font face="Arial" size="2"> “At a practical level, results of these studies can potentially be used to inform women and men, friends and relatives, of danger signs— the specific acts and tactics of mate retention that portend the possibility of future violence in relationships in order to prevent it,” the authors conclude.</font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b> <font face="Arial" size="2">* * *</font> </p> <p><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#FFFFFF">Send us a <a href="mailto:editor@world-science.net">comment</a> on this story, or <a href="mailto:?Body=http://www.world-science.net/othernews/051029_wherefrm.htm">send it to a friend</a></font> </p> <p>  </p> </b> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </body>